4 Ways to Elevate Your Life Using Gratitude

Gratitude actually begins with being grateful for the mere fact that you have choice and time and grace to overcome hardships. Be grateful for that. You can steer it back, you can change it. You can write a new chapter, you can begin again, you can change that relationship, you can start that new career. You can make that difference. You need to know that and be grateful for, for that opportunity. It's a week of gratitude. So here's four big ideas on this life changing topic. Now, we all know that we should be more grateful for our lives. And we know that gratitude is really the great gateway to happiness. But so few people actually feel that true sense of appreciation that gives us that vibrancy and that joy and that pop and that life satisfaction that we really deserve in our short time on this planet. And so today I hope that you'll take some notes on this topic of gratitude and really integrate it as a practice into your life, as I'm always trying to teach in growth day. You know, common sense is not always common practice. And that's why so many people of great potential fail to ever feel it or realize it. And I think gratitude is one of those things. You know, we forget to appreciate life because it just blurs together. You're busy with the house and the kids and getting healthy and doing all the things we have to do in our careers and our lives that some days it's just a blur, some days it's just going through the motions and living in a reactive state. But we know by shifting our mindset into a greater level of gratitude, obviously we can change everything. But let me address the most common thing. When you talk about gratitude with anybody, sometimes people say, listen, I'm not feeling gratitude right now because the kids haven't slept in six months, because I'm not earning what I want, because I don't feel as healthy as I want to be, because I don't compare to this person, because these people are like this, because the country is like this. And, and we have all these reasons that we feel like we're not as grateful as we could be. And what I always tell people is that realize that gratitude actually begins with being grateful for the mere fact that you have choice and time and grace to overcome hardships. Let me say it again. Gratitude begins there. It's like there's so many times in our lives we can't be grateful for everything. It's like something bad happened to us. And wait, Bren, I'm supposed to be happy for that terrible thing that happened to me? No, but you can Be grateful that you have choice in your life, that there is time to change, to shift, that there is grace or faith or luck or blessings still abounding, even though that situation, that circumstance, that person is awful, terrible or difficult. And that's when you know someone really has true gratitude. And they've done the work to develop that mindset, which is saying, hey, you know what? I'm just grateful that I can change things and you can. You've got to internalize that, that ability to take personal agency in your life to say, hey, I'm the captain of the ship. While these situations or this storm is not what I wanted over the long term, I can steer this thing back, be grateful for that. You can steer it back, you can change it. You can write a new chapter, you can begin again. You can change that relationship, you can start that new career. You can make that difference. You need to know that and be grateful for that opportunity. Does that make sense? Being grateful even amid struggle, that we have choice and time and grace, that shift makes the days where there's struggle still feel something that you can appreciate and be aware of. Otherwise, if it's just always a struggle and so awful and we don't honor that, that's just life and that's reality, then guess what? We're never happy or grateful until everything is perfect in our life. And when is that ever going to happen that everything is perfect in our lives? You and I both know that does not happen. And so I want to encourage you here to realize, oh, gratitude is actually recognizing that I have choice, time and grace to overcome. Choice, time and grace to overcome. When you step into that, it's a different feeling in life. The second big idea I want to share with you might be something that challenges you even a little bit more. You know, in Growth Day, what we're always trying to do is take your mindset to another level where there's a little bit more edge and, and a little bit more personal responsibility and drive that we all need to take in our lives. So, you know, if you don't know what Growth Day is, it's really the world's number one system for self improvement where I bring you the tools and the teachers and the transformational experiences to help you get your motivation and your drive and your productivity and your leadership to its top levels. And so forgive me if this one sounds a little bit challenging, but I do this with my high performance clients all the time. We always talk about this in Growth Day and so I hope it fits. And that's this big idea about gratitude is this gratitude shows up in your calendar. If I parachute it into your life, and we looked at the last couple weeks of your life. If you're really grateful for life, are you doing the things that you find grateful, meaningful? Are you living your life and conducting your life in a way in which you're proud of meaning? See, if we're. If we're grateful for life, if gratitude is really there, we use our time wisely. Let me say that again. If we're really grateful for life, we use our time wisely. Time management is actually the greatest indicator of whether or not someone has gratitude. I know very few people have ever, you know, brought those two together. It's kind of the magic of what we do in growth days. We take some concepts that people don't understand or have never connected, and we go, oh, this is how life really is. Life really is the way your calendar has functioned the last two, three, four months, at least right now at this stage of your life. And the question is, does your calendar show you that what you are doing with your time, energy, effort, career, life is something you're grateful for? Are you grateful for a life in such a way you're using your time? Well, you wouldn't see the last couple months of just blindly scrolling through social media, wasting an hour or two or three a day, just comparing yourself to other people and judging other people on social media, because that's not a good use of time. And if you're grateful for your short time on this planet, you don't waste an hour or two browsing social media. Maybe you go there to create. Maybe you do have those people who bring you inspiration or joy or new life or career strategies. I'm not here to say social media is terrible. Maybe you met me there somewhere out there. But my point is that if we're just wasting a lot of time, all the time doing unnecessary things, things that don't mean anything to us, things aren't additive to our life, to our family, to our health, then I question whether or not we're aware of the shortness of life, and we're really grateful for it. Hey, if you're grateful for your health, guess what's on your calendar this week? Your workouts. You've chosen your programs. You know where you're gonna work out here, right? If you're really grateful for your relationship with your spouse, your partner, you've got some date nights planned. If you're really grateful for the career or the opportunity to serve, you've got a Vision, you've got ideas of what you wanna do in this week, in this month, in this quarter, in this year. See, they always say where there's no vision, people perish. And the truth is, many of us, we do languish for many years when we don't have the vision for life. But why don't have people? Why don't most people have a vision? Why don't they have plans this week or next week or next month? Because they think they're going to be here forever. They forgot the shortness of life. And when you're really grateful, I promise you, your calendar is a little more full, but it's more full of things that are important to you, bring meaning to you, advance you, allow you to lead or contribute or serve or be with your family, take care of your health and your finances and your mission. It's so important. Your calendar is an indicator of whether or not you're taking life seriously and you're grateful for it. And as a coach, it's a simple thing that I always do with people. Go show me your calendar. What have we been focused on? Is that worthwhile for you? Is that helping you feel grateful and appreciative for life and your opportunities here? Because again, just like point number one, you can shift, you can change, you can establish new habits and ideas and ways of living that will help you feel not only like you can overcome challenges, but but you're architecting the future and the life that you really desire. 3rd Big Idea Today is often in research, gratitude increases as we perceive blocks of time in our life is something that we appreciated, learned for, grew wiser from. What does that mean? A great practice for you today is maybe you open up growth Day. You go to the journal section in growth day because we built the world's number one mindset journal right in Growth Day. So you open up the app of Growth day and you hop in there and you just journal about the different epochs of your life, the different eras of your life. Often in psychology, they'll take clients or patients and they'll go, hey, let's write down everything you remember from the ages of 1 to 10, and then 10 to 15, 15 to 20, 20 to 25, they'll usually go by 5 year increments and they'll say, what are some good memories you have from those times? What are some lessons you learned from those times? What are some things honestly you wish you could do? Again, what are some of those things that you are grateful for and you still wish didn't Happen, but you still have gratitude because it gave you wisdom. And they'll just ask people to really self reflect on those times, but draw out the things that made them feel appreciative or wiser. And they found this actually increases your overall sense of life satisfaction. Because, see, so many of us, we lack what coaches might often call coherence in our life. Our story seems, you know, just all over the place. You know, obviously think about how crazy last week was and you're asking me to put together my life story. Brendon Very few people have done a lot of consistent personal development work that would give them the self awareness to be able to perceive the entire span of their life and, and to be able to draw out lessons, to be able to draw out things they're grateful for. But self awareness is a huge gate into greatness. Self awareness opens the door to change, to use another metaphor. And so we gotta become a little more self aware about our lifespan and see it as something that's built a consistent and positive identity for ourselves. Because I want you to be grateful for you and your life's journey, even those hard times. And if you can tap into that, something really shifts. Have you thought even about your teenage years or your twenties, your thirties or forties lately from a perspective of gratitude or even maybe joy or nostalgia, not because you want to go back and you want to live there and everything has to be like it used to be? No. In fact, to be really grateful for life means you are currently building a life, that you're active, you're assertive, you have I agency in it. But I do want to reference this, that if you could take this as a moment or a call to action, to sit down and just journal about the major eras or times of your life and pick out a theme or something you're appreciative or something you learned, something really shifts, you start to feel better. And I make myself do that on the first day of every single month just so I can write, oh, yeah, this is what my life is about. This is what I've been through. This is what I've experienced. Be grateful for all this. Brendan, the last big idea I'd like to share with you today. The fourth big idea is that I really believe we have to have a daily expressive action of gratitude. What's that mean? A daily expressive action of gratitude. That means you share your gratitude and appreciation with others. I'd love to challenge you just even today. Just send three quick videos from your phone to somebody you love, Lead work with, appreciate Three videos every day this week. Three videos every day to somebody you love, lead, serve. Just a. A a video of appreciation. I don't say a text. I'm not asking do a scheduled phone call or zoom. I'm not asking you to send an audio text. I want you to send a video. And I think it's important because so few people ever see you connect with them and share your appreciation. Hey, maybe every day you do one to your spouse, or you choose one of your kids, or you choose somebody at work, but try to get three, even if it's the same people every day, I'm fine with that. But three videos out every day just from your phone. Just text a video to your friends, to your family, to your loved ones, to those who you serve and lead with. Why? Because so often they never see it from another person. They never hear it from another person. Most people leave a job or quit a job because they're not appreciated. Same thing in divorce. People don't feel seen, heard, appreciated, recognized for their effort, for their time, for their relationship. And this is a chance to express it and to shift it. Now, I know some people say, I can't do video. I'll do an audio or text or I'll make a phone call. I'm like, that's great too. But can you get three out every day? I think it just. It's hard to do unless you're doing it just with your phone, making it simple. So try three videos every day. I promise it will shift something in you. You know, I grew up in a time where people didn't have phones, where they could quickly do that on their phone. I know many of you did, too. And I think about some of the most important relationships in my life. You know, I think about my dad, I think about my grandma, both of them. I have almost no videos of. None. And what it would mean to have a little cachet of videos of. Of my dad looking at the camera and. And. And saying something kind and loving, or my grandmother saying something kind of and loving, or I think of my first boss who made such an impact in my life if I had some video of her saying something kind and loving and appreciative. I don't have that now. I have it up here. But it would sure be nice once in a while when I have a down day or a difficult day to scroll back and see those types of videos. That's a gift you can actually give someone this week that they'll be thankful for.